Mosquera-Perea shines in Vonleh's absence

Just over 30 minutes before IU tipped off against No. 22 Ohio State on Sunday, IU Coach Tom Crean announced via Twitter that his team would take the floor without its freshman star.

“We will be without Noah Vonleh today,” Crean tweeted at 3:29 p.m. Sunday. “He has foot inflammation and is not going to go.”

The Hoosiers were forced to take on the Buckeyes without the prodigious freshman forward and second-leading scorer. Vonleh, a seven-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week, had started every game for IU this season, averaging 11.6 points, 9.1 rebounds and just over a block per game.

Crean said Vonleh’s foot is something that has plagued him all season and is merely an issue of inflammation, not a fracture. IU is unsure of when the Haverhill, Mass., native will be available again.

“It’s an inflammation of the foot that has been bothering him for some time,” Crean said. “There’s no stress fracture or anything like that. It’s just bothering him and he’s not very comfortable with it.”

His absence left the Hoosiers with only two players — sophomore guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and senior forward Will Sheehey — with double-digit scoring averages entering a game against the Big Ten’s No. 1 scoring defense.

6-foot-8 sophomore Jeremy Hollowell started at center in Vonleh’s absence, scoring four points and pulling in five rebounds, but was overshadowed by a breakout performance from sophomore forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea.

Coming off a tumultuous month that saw a Feb. 14 arrest and charge of operating while intoxicated, a two-game suspension and the Hoosiers endure a blowout loss to archrival Purdue without him, the 6-foot-9 Mosquera-Perea submitted a complete performance in his 15 minutes off the bench.

He scored a career-high eight points, connecting on three of his four field goal attempts and two of three free throws. On the defensive end, he added five rebounds, three blocks and a steal.

“When we found out that Noah wasn’t playing, I knew my team was going to need me right now and I stepped it up,” Mosquera-Perea said.

Should Vonleh’s foot continue to plague him and keep him out of either of the Hoosiers’ two remaining Big Ten games, Mosquera-Perea will be a major part of a rotation of forwards that will attempt to fill his vacancy.

Aside from Vonleh, IU carries on its roster only three players who stand at 6-foot-8 or taller: senior forward Jeff Howard, sophomore center Peter Jurkin, Hollowell and Mosquera-Perea. Jurkin has played only 11 minutes this season and Howard has thrived in his role as a high-energy substitute, leaving Hollowell and Mosquera-Perea as the legitimate options to take Vonleh’s starting position.

Crean said Hollowell did not provide the Hoosiers with the variety of options that his gameplan demanded.

“We chucked the gameplan over the period of time with Noah not in there, because Jeremy just wasn’t going to be able to do some of those things in the sense of what Noah brings and at the same time some of the plays we run with Noah,” he said.

He added that he will wait for Vonleh to get deeper into his recovery process before making a decision on the gameplan for the rest of the season.
 
“It’s truly going to be a day-to-day thing with him,” Crean said. “We’re just going to have to wait and see how it goes for him.”